Balloons
by Lily and Shadow
Summary: Now a collection of oneshots featuring Matt, Mello, and Near. Friendship, humour, a little shounen ai, a little angst. Balloons, Dye Another Day, Kiss, Dice Castles.
1. Balloons

**A/N:** Hola. Yay, oneshot. This is just something I thought of randomly. I was walking to the library and spotted this whole bunch of white balloons caught in a tree. Anyway, on with the story.

(Friendship/Angst, MattxNear friendship, Wammy's era, spoilers for Near's name.)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note.

* * *

"Near!" A loud knocking accompanied Matt's voice and Near sighed quietly. It wasn't that he didn't like Matt, quite the contrary actually, but the gamer could be so loud sometimes. Perhaps he ought to tell Matt the door was open before the redhead ended up knocking it down. 

"Yes Matt? It's open," Near said flatly. A quick glance at the clock told him it was a little after ten in the morning and he wondered briefly why the techie was up so early, since he usually slept until at least eleven if he had the chance.

"Happy birthday," Matt said merrily as he tumbled into the room.

Near considered this in the fraction of a second before he looked up at the over excited boy. Mello had probably been giving him chocolate again, which would account for the sugar high. Matt should never be given sugar. Quietly he contemplated what the gamer had said. Was it his birthday? He must have forgotten.

"Thank you Matt," Near said as stoically as ever, turning his attention from the model plane he was building to the freckled boy in the door way. Matt held a small wrapped package and a single white balloon, as pale as Near himself. It was the balloon that caught Near's attention. He froze as he focused in on the innocent white orb drifting serenely just above Matt's head.

"Near?" Matt frowned at the tiny boy's reaction. His coal-black eyes were wide and he sat perfectly still, just staring. "Yo, Near. Hey, what's up?"

Near heard him, but it didn't register. He was lost in thought.

_It was a warm sp__r__ing__ night and the sounds of laughter an__d fireworks filled the air. Nate__ was smiling happ__ily as he watched the bursts of colour lighting up the night sky. His mother and father sat on either side of him, his mother fussing over him the whole time.__ It was Walpurgis Night__ and the first festival of any sort that the boy had been allowed to go to. He had so many things wrong with him that his mother barely let him out of the house for fear of some harm befalling her precious little boy. His father, however, argued that it would do him good to get out occasionally since he would have to start school sometime. He had been home schooled all his short life, but his parents intended to __enrol__ him in middle school soon._

_There was another loud bang and another burst of colour painted the darkened sky. Nate toyed with the string of his balloon, watching the__ pale__ white orb bobbing on the faint breeze. The carnival atmosphere of the celebration was a bit loud for him, but nevertheless he was enjoying himself.__ It would have been difficult not to have fun with the air of merriment and celebration. That, combined with the fact that he had never experienced this sort of thing before and his young age, allowed him to lose himself in the celebration. _

_Finally with a barrage of shouts and cheers the fireworks ended and Nate's mother insisted they leave before it got any later. Still smiling, the pale boy followed his parents back to the car__. They were nearly home when they were hit head on by another car carrying a group of college students on their way to a party. The last thing the tiny boy could remember was watching his white balloon float up into the sky until it was just a pale dot beside the moon._

A gloved hand fell on Near's shoulder and the pale boy jumped slightly before recovering his composure. Matt was kneeling next to him, peering into his face with concern.

"You alright?" the goggled gamer inquired as the smaller boy blinked several times.

Near nodded. "Yes. Just thinking."

"About what?" Matt asked.

"My parents," the tiny genius replied calmly.

"Oh… sorry," the techie apologized sheepishly. "Um… Happy birthday." It almost sounded like a question. Quietly Matt presented Near with the small package, which he had wrapped as best he could with white paper. Near studied him silently for a moment before Matt spoke again. "Well, go ahead and open it," he urged.

Carefully Near removed the paper and folded it neatly before he turned to the actual gift. It was a small puzzle. All the pieces were the same size and shape, edges excluded, and tiny tendrils of ivy wound their way across it. It was one of those that seemed easy, but if you didn't put every piece in the right place the vines wouldn't match up. He grinned at Matt who beamed at the small show of approval.

The two spent the next hour chatting companionably as Near assembled the puzzle, gladly forgetting all about the white balloon hovering behind him like a ghost of his past.


	2. Dye Another Day

**A/N:** Hola! Lily here. I'm not sure quite what brought this on. And the title, I've never seen a James Bond film in my life, but it sounded amusing. It's my first attempt at humour! That's pretty much all I can say about it. In other news, Castro resigned! Woo-hoo! That made me quite happy. Now we're all just waiting to see what happens. Enough rambling. On with the story.

(Friendship/Humour, MattxMello friendship, Wammy's era.) This chapter is rated **T** for mild swearing. I forgot about that. I should probably change the rating on the whole thing...

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note.

* * *

"Hey Mel," Matt called as he wandered into the room. 

The blonde didn't look up. He knew Matt hadn't either, or there would have been some comment. The sound of lasers and explosions from Matt's gameboy had never been more welcome. It was only a matter of time, though, before the other noticed. Mello knew by heart how these encounters with Matt and his games went. He would look up in three… two… one…

"Damn, Mello. What the hell happened to your _hair_?" The gamer whistled, suppressing a laugh.

The blonde glared up at him from where he was sitting at his desk. He knew precisely what the techie was talking about. His hair was an odd red-black colour and missing a chunk on one side. He could see Matt laughing silently. Oh all the lovely things going on in his mind right now. So many ways to make Matt wish he had forgotten how to laugh… But there was a crisis at the moment. He looked like he'd been used as a paintbrush and then lost a fight to a weed-trimmer. There was no way he could let anyone else see him like this. It was bad enough Matt had seen him like this. The chances of the techie letting him live it down were slim to none.

"Cheryl," Mello ground out.

Again Matt snickered. "That girl you've had a crush on for the past, like, two years?"

Mello nodded grimly.

"Shows what that'll get you," Matt smirked.

"At least I _have_ crushes on girls," Mello hissed, more threatening than sarcastic.

Matt ignored the biting tone in his voice as he protested. "Hey! Not cool. I have crushes on girls!"

"Oh, so David's a girls' name now?" Mello smirked.

"Man, I knew it was a mistake telling you about that," the gamer grumbled, turning quite a few interesting shades of red.

"Whatever," Mello said, dismissing the techie's protests. "That's not fixing _this_." He held up a lock of his once-golden hair as though it were a dead rat left out in the sun for a few days.

"I hate to say it, Mel, but I don't think there's much hope," the redhead said with a half- grin. "I mean…"

"What am I supposed to do?" the black clad boy whined. "I can't even leave the room with this."

"I don't know why you're making such a fuss about it," Matt said, glancing down at his forgotten game. "I mean, if we evened it up it wouldn't look _too_ bad. And maybe make the red a little darker…"

Mello was glad sometimes that Matt was sensible about these things. On the days when the gamer nagged him for wearing two different shades of black, it got annoying, but now it was nothing short of a miracle. Honestly, were there even shades of black? Mello decided he'd just let Matt do whatever he saw necessisary. It's not like it could get any worse.

"Let me just get some scissors," the younger boy said, setting down his gameboy. "And ask Cheryl about the dye."

"Wait, what?" Mello had tuned out most of Matt's rant.

"You have black patches that I can't do anything with, but if we make the red more of a blood colour I think you could pull it off," Matt said matter-of-factly. "And we'll need to get rid of the rest of the blonde."

Mello groaned. "Fine."

Ten minutes later Matt was back, dye and scissors in hand and a Cheshire cat grin pasted across his face that made Mello cringe. If they both lived to see the end of this it would be a miracle. Mello obeyed as Matt told him to turn his chair around and he watched the gamer settle himself on the table. This was not going to be pleasant, he was sure.

"Wow, Mello," Matt chuckled. "She sucks at this. What made you let her do this? I mean, you're always so touchy about your hair."

"I don't know," the blonde whined, sinking down in his chair. "Just fix it."

"You know, you tease me about David – which was a onetime thing, by the way – but at least he never made me look like a paint pallet threw up on me." Matt was laughing outright now. He had set to work evening out the bottom of Mello's hair before he tried to do anything with the colour.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't see why it can't just all be black," the blonde griped.

"You would look dead," Matt said, snipping the section of hair he was holding as though to make his point.

Mello just sighed and muttered something under his breath that Matt was glad he hadn't heard.

After what felt like forever, Matt finally released the older boy, sending him over to the mirror to see if he approved. Mello had to admit, it did look a little better. The edge was a little above his jaw now and the bloody colour wasn't as awful as he'd expected. It made him look dangerous and he almost liked the way it kind of blended with the black splotches.

His admiration of Matt's work was cut short by the dinner bell. The gamer had to shove him through the door, repeating over and over bits of encouragement about how he looked fine and no one would notice. Finally Mello gave in and the two made their way down to the dining hall.

As a tiny boy dressed all in white settled next to him Mello could feel piercing grey eyes watching him.

"What do you want, Near?" Mello sneered at the boy who was twirling his hair contemplatively.

The boy seemed to consider this for a moment before answering with a question of his own. "Why does Mello look like a bloodstained Dalmatian?"

The blonde could feel his face heating up as he trembled with rage. "MATT! I'm gonna kill you!"


	3. Kiss

**A/N:** Hola. I have no idea where this came from. I was just sitting at my computer working on zoology and had an urge to type. I like this one. It's short but it's cute.

(Humour/Shounen, MattxMello, post-Wammy's.)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Death Note.

* * *

"MELLO!!!!" Matt bellowed. 

"Matt! Shut up!" Mello hissed through bared teeth as he threw a hand over Matt's mouth from where he knelt on the floor behind the gamer.

Matt hadn't even noticed that Mello was back in room until he heard the blonde's voice and tasted the leather of the glove over his mouth. Sheepishly he turned his head until he could see the other boy out of the corner of his emerald green, goggle covered eye. That was just like Mello to creep around their apartment like a big cat stalking some poor, unsuspecting little creature. That was just the way Mello was. Cold, silent, deadly. Matt, on the other hand, well, Matt was Mello's complete opposite. Warm, loud, and too forgiving for his own good. Sometimes he wondered how they hadn't killed each other by now. Not that things had ever been like that. Not even close.

"What do you want?" Mello questioned, only removing his hand after he had added "Without deafening me, please."

"Nothing," Matt said, trying to avoid Mello's gaze. If looks could kill he'd have been a dead man years ago.

"Then why are you yelling?" the blonde ground out.

Matt just shrugged and Mello glared at him with renewed fervour. In response the techie leaned back against him so that Mello's chin rested atop his unruly red locks. "Oh, come on. You know you love me."

Mello snorted and stood up so that Matt fell back. But the gamer just smirked and hit the blonde in the back of knee as he turned to walk away, causing him to stumble and fall.

"Are you quite finished now?" Mello grumbled with a glare as he lay next to the redhead in the middle of the floor.

"Nope," Matt grinned, turning over so that he was right next to the blonde, looking down at him, and pulled him into a kiss. It only lasted a moment, but when he let go Mello was blushing redder than Matt's hair. "Now I am."


	4. Mello, Ruiner of Pleasant Dreams

**A/N:** Ok, so this is something I threw together just now because it's 2:13am and I freaked myself out working on a JtHM piece I've been discussing with my sister. By the way, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet; I've been working on that. It's like a cross between _The Shining_ and JtHM. Yeah, I know I'm lame if working on that freaked me out. It's always scarier when things come from your own mind and not somebody else. I can read horror stories before bed, just not write them. Enough rambling. This was supposed to be like a day in the life sort of thing, but it didn't turn out that way. I just wanted to write something cute and/or funny real quick before I go to bed. Reviews please?

(Humor/Friendship, MattxMello implied shounen, post-Wammy's.)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note.

* * *

"Hey, Matt, get out of bed," Mello demanded. "Now, before I dump you off the mattress."

"Go'way," Matt mumbled into the pillow as he hid his face from the morning sunlight. It wasn't even noon and Mello was already demanding he get up.

"Up. Now. I have something important I need you to get done," Mello said, standing over the striped lump on their bed. Still no reaction. With a sigh he grabbed the edge of the mattress and heaved, sending Matt crashing to the floor with a thud and a yelp. "Up."

The redhead muttered a string of profanity under his breath as he surveyed the damage Mello had done when he sent the gamer crashing to the hard floor. He would have a nice bruise, that he was sure of. Not that it was anything he could use to guilt-trip the blonde. The general rule with Mello was no broken bones, no life-threatening gashes, no severe trauma, no sympathy. Well, since he was up he may as well see what the ruiner of all pleasant dreams wanted.

"What?" he demanded as he stood, bedraggled, leaning against the wall at the end of the hallway rubbing sleep from his blood-shot green eyes.

Mello eyed his dishevelled hair, striped boxers, and black t-shirt displaying a one up mushroom with disdain before walking over and handing him his laptop. Once the gamer had the computer firmly in his grasp, Mello handed him a sheet of paper with a series of words scrawled on it. "That's your goal," he said, indicating the paper.

Matt glared sleepily at him. "It's just the Pentagon. What do you need me for?"

"Just finish that," Mello said. "You can ask questions when you're done."

Matt didn't argue, just glared for a moment longer before starting his laptop and all the programs he would need. The whole thing took him twenty six minutes and fifty three seconds. When he was finished with what Mello had asked of him he looked back up at the blonde. "Please tell me you that you could have done that."

"Me, I'm good with a gun," Mello said, pulling a small pistol from god only knew where as though to illustrate his point. "Computers, that's your field."

"That was child's play," Matt scoffed.

"How about we go to the range when I get back," Mello scowled. "We'll see what you have to say then."

Matt just smirked as Mello picked up his helmet and his jacket and headed for the door. "You're on."

The blonde nodded in acknowledgement of the challenge and shut the door behind him. Matt waited until he heard the revving of the motorcycle engine before he slunk back to bed. After all, it was still before noon and sleep was third on Matt's list of things he valued most, right behind Mello and video games.


	5. Dice Castles

**A/N:** Hola. I have no idea why I wrote this, it just seemed cute. And look, they're not killing each other.  
And thank you to everyone who has reviewed any of these! I love reading your comments.

(Friendship, Mello Near, Wammy's era.)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note.

* * *

Near sighed as his dice castle came crashing down around him. He'd spent so long on this one, too. "Hello, Mello."

"What the – ? You didn't even look up. How'd you know it was me?" Mello pouted, somewhat put off that Near could so easily guess his tormentor.

"Because it's always you," Near said flatly, raising his grey eyes to focus on the blonde. "The others have gotten bored with tormenting me. Apparently you don't give up quite as easily."

"You'll crack one of these days," Mello growled under his breath.

"I doubt that," the pale boy replied apathetically as he started to rebuild the ruined castle. There was silence for a moment and Near wondered why Mello wasn't leaving. Then something black appeared in his vision and another die was added to the wall by a gloved hand. And for the first time in a long time, Near was startled. The blonde terror was helping him rebuild. "Mello?"

Mello just smirked. "You weren't expecting that, were you?" Near shook his head and Mello said "I thought not. Come on, let's finish this. I bet I can build it higher than you can."

"Well that would make sense, as Mello is taller than I am," Near said, cocking his head to the side.

"Shut up, Near," Mello grumbled as he placed another die. And for once Near complied. After all, Mello was proving he wasn't completely heartless, so why object?


End file.
